10/15 -10/17 - Back in The City, Staying Hot in the Cold

A nice short workweek (Thank You Vacation Days) and we have once again arrived at the weekend. Got back in the house, finished off my dinner and found myself something to wear for my Friday Night out. The Jimmy showed up at 10:30 and the boys hung out and then we piled into the new Murano and drove into the city. Got into Manhattan rather quickly and made our way up Lafayette and over to 17th Street. Found a nice parking spot right on the block and headed into the club. Said a hello to Doorman Ray in his new coat and made our way inside. The DJ on the decks at Splash this evening was Carlos Pedraza. He stayed with a pretty nice mix of tribal, hard spanish tasting mixes and a few Diva tunes. Of course my first priority was to get inside, take a quick once-over of the bartenders and then see if the new bar/lounge downstairs housed what I was looking for. And what a new look it was. Great all around lighting and so many places to lounge and talk to your friends it was like a whole other place. Plus the bathroom can now be entered from both sides of the back and there is now only one coatcheck (the one in the back). Of course the reason why I settled downstairs was my best Barman Brett. We said our long overdue hellos and I immediately ordered my signature Splashbar drink ( a Surfer on Acid). I then brought Pais and The Jimmy downstairs to see the new look of the new downstairs. We all liked the bar (except it seemed too wide at the top/back but the lighting and the materials were great looking and showed a lot of thought and planning. Without people smoking cigarettes the seats should stay looking good for a while. I headed back upstairs to dance a few times and even made my special appearance on the stage while hearing some of the high energy tunes at 2am. Our one downstairs complaint seemed to be that the music was kinda muffled with the midrange taken out for the listeners downstairs. Brett told me how he had lost the last Peak Hour Mix I had made him (stolen at the Gym) so I told him I would have a new copy for him the next time I saw him. I danced some more and eventually decided to leave at around 3:30am and make our way back into BK after grabbing the mags at the door and headed back home.'

I woke up and found Pais had picked up some breakfast so we dined in and hung out the afternoon chilling out and watching a DVR recording of "Friday After Next". After getting a Pizza lunch at Lenny's we hung out some more and rested up for our Saturday night. My friend from work was too sick to come out but since I have a pretty full sched of having fun I am sure we will find time to hang again real soon. For dinner we eventually ordered in Chicken Parmesan. All set after a quick haircut earlier and shower I was ready to head out into the night once again. The night was definitely cooler and I was glad I settled on wearing my Columbia coat with the lining in. The line in front of the place wait was not too long but I still would not have wanted to come back out into the night air with just a thin jacket or like some of the more despeerate seeming people come in with just a sweater or long sleeve shirt or the crackhead look of just a shortsleeve shirt. It was in the 40s at night so I was not the one to be cold for no good reason. We said hi to the guy with the drinking bracelets. Made our way to the coat check, said hi to the girls and then on into the club. Our DJ for the eve at Roxy was Peter Rauhofer who of course was not yet in the booth when we arrived at 12:30am. The music was still good as he seems to give us a nice playlist even before he arrives. I was able to tell however with the depth of the bass and the complexity of the mixes when he finally showed however and the party of course went to that next level where the party can only get better. Except for the pockets of party girls who felt they could smoke indoors (you can't in NY) and the fact it got almost too crowded to move at one point with the crowd evenly spaced through almost the entire club. The crowd was into the music and the DJ did not disappoint while my drinks kept flowing from Barman Barker. I even saw my other Barman Brett from across the bar. I of course had his gift CD to give him because I am one who parties with cargo pants just so I can walk with a CD and he was so happy he just up and disappeared. I never did hear the almost famous 4am play of "Lola's Theme" but the rest of the music, including the wild extended teaser buildup and then final playing of "Lose My Breath" by Destiny's Child was nicely done and even though I am sure I have heard it before the music sounded most excellent. In fact it stayed so good I stayed on at the party until 5am. We walked out happy and content, picked up the missing HX magazine and headed home.

Woke up Sunday and once again had a delivered breakfast to nosh on and plenty of football on TV to watch. The afternoon was spent decompressing and looking up esoteric wild mess on the internet. We were supposed to go out and shopping something for dinner but we ended up phoning the order in and picking it up. I enjoyed a nice lasagna dinner and readied myself to watch some TV. Of course with the baseball games on there was no other TV to watch besides football but at least we were able to catch up on last weeks episode and the new episode of The Wire on HBO. (DVR is a great thing). Anyway, another Sunday drew to a close and another weekend finished and under wraps. Until the next one anyway. Hope the night is not as cold or at least stays as fun. Of course it will. I like them like that.